


Blade heels

by WickedBee



Series: Paper and Weapon [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Don't Try This At Home, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-19 17:07:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13708887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WickedBee/pseuds/WickedBee
Summary: Tenten wants to be like Tsunade.Well, Tsunade was a medic-nin way before she was a legend.Tenten does not have enough control to be one.Yet.After all, control can be learnt, and Tenten will be damned if she does not master it.(Tenten is a common orphan. She does not have clan techniques. Everything she learnt was a result of her dedication. Other people help too, somehow.)





	Blade heels

Knife-shoes are not an original idea of hers. No, they originated from Snow Country where civilians use them to walk on ice (they call it ice skating). They even have competitions. So, it is not her idea to put blades on shoes. Not really. This is her defense when Neji first finds her kunai deep in the earth (literally). Sure civilians do it differently, but Tenten has no ice here for her to do the same. She tries to mimic the invention by attaching kunais to her sandals. It is still not very successful, but she has only been doing it for three days. It makes sense for her progress to be slow. Walking on them is a _horrible_ experience, but she will eventually improve...somehow...

 

“But why?”

 

Neji can’t empathize with her struggles because he is a prodigy, not a genius of hard work. He will never understand how much effort she has to put into learning things. Lee would though, but Lee is in a hospital right now, and Tenten does not want to think about that (not at all).

 

“Because, Neji- _kun_ , I need to learn. I ain’t good enough just yet. Anyway, you didn’t come here just to see me training, did ya? Whatcha need me for?” She adds lightly while removing her kunai-shoes from the earth. It could have been better, but it’s okay. She has all the time in the world, and it's not like Tsunade-sama is two months away or something from coming to the village.

 

“I would like to try some techniques against your weaponry. Would you mind?”

 

“No, let's get going.”  


* * *

  
Gai is the next one to learn about her attempts. He appears one morning while she is trying to keep the kunai from digging into the dirt.  Tenten is having _some_ mild success (the weapons only get half-buried these days, which is _infinitely_ better than her first trial). She is not proud of the shriek she produces when her teacher greets her. “Dammit, Gai-sensei, give a girl some warning, ya know!”

 

“I apologize, my youthful student! I will endeavor to lower my voice when greeting you alone from now on! But, if I may ask, what kind of exercise were you doing just now?” There is no judgement in his voice nor in his eyes. Even his posture is open. She would’ve known if he was.

 

The Konoha Orphanage has a policy of accepting orphans until they reach the age nine. After that, it is every child for themselves and a fund for them if they are enrolled in the Ninja Academy (most are). She is not proud of the things she had to do to stretch her funds. Neither is she ashamed. Still...she has seen the way some teachers looked at children when they were caught doing acts deemed _unsavory_ . It still makes no sense for her; they are training to become ninjas, so why should stealing be bad? _Why_ did those teachers look at them like judges, as though they were the jury and executioner and the orphans common criminals, instead of just seeing hopeless _children_?

 

Gai never looks at her like that though, so he is a good man in her books. Or would it be a good ninja?

“It’s a chakra control exercise, Gai-sensei. I thought ‘bout it after our mission to Snow Country some time ago, but I never found the time to experiment with it like I wanted to. So I’m trying it now to see how much it can improve my control.”

 

He strokes his chin in contemplation before striking one of his signature poses (Tenten almost closes her eyes from the sheer brightness radiating from him). “It’s an admirable attitude from your part, Tenten-chan! I am very proud of you right now. If you need help, don't hesitate to ask me! Yosh, if I cannot help you, I will do three hundreds push-ups!” She truly likes Gai, even if a year ago she thought he was a weird guy, but she has seen worse despite him and Lee sometimes baffling her at times with their antics.

 

“Actually, I’m havin’ some trouble keepin’ these kunai attached to my sandals. They jus’…ugh!” Tenten has difficulty finding the right word to say. She is frustrated, and it makes her slip back into her old accent. Losing control over the way she talks only furthers her temper; Tenten had practiced  rigorously to drop it back in the Academy where everyone knew that people are more likely to help a person who talked just like they did.

 

She takes a deep breath. If she did it before with Neji, she can do it right now. “I’m going to show it to you, and then you will understand what I am talking about.”

 

Tenten digs out her kunai and starts to walk. Her posture is off, and she is looking ridiculous, she just knows it, but her teacher is not going to ridicule her for it. With that in mind, she tries to keep the kunai just touching the earth. It is successful, until it’s not; the strings aren’t sufficient enough to keep the kunais still. They are moving in the wrong direction. She has enough sense to move her body back, so she only falls on her butt. It is one of the lessons she learnt a long time ago: always  try to fall on your butt, for it is less likely to break something then even if it still hurts. “You see what I mean?”

 

“Yes, my dear student.” Gai is trying to keep her steady, but it is difficult because she has no equilibrium right now. “The strings you are using will not keep the kunai in place the way you seem to be wanting it. You could try to attach them using your chakra, and while I think it would increase the difficulty of the exercise, I believe you can succeed.” He winks at her, and Tenten cannot keep the smile off her face. _She will do it. She will improve her control or she will be damned._

 

* * *

  
Tenten is more than happy to share her expertise on fūinjutsu with Sakura Haruno. Of course, the other girl doesn't appear to be much at the first sight, but she is far more intelligent than people perceive her to be. She notices it in the way Sakura nods while she explains theory and how the girl asks questions about the way different seal arrays work. These are difficult questions and to some she has no answer, but Sakura just accepts her lacking explanations anyway and continues processing her thoughts.

 

Sure, Tenten is losing time that she could be using to improve her chakra control, but she has found a fellow seal enthusiast, which is a very rare occurrence. This is sort of odd considering how Uzushio was famous for their seals and was Konoha’s sister village.

 

“Tenten-san?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“So, un…” the girl is blushing and mumbling and slowly becoming an incoherent mess. Maybe Sakura has a crush on her? It would be her first time being crushed on by a girl. Tenten takes a deep breath and is totally _not_ _ready_ to hear a love confession, but Sakura stops rambling before she could think more about the matter. “Yesterday, I created a routine for you, and it will improve your chakra control to 80 percent if my estimations are right. The only thing is... it will just be-um- _very_ complicated. And you will be extremely prone to hurting yourself.”

 

This is… unexpected. Very unexpected. But by Kaguya, Tenten’s feet are hurting, even _shaking_ everytime she walks, and she is fighting to reach even 67 percent of chakra control.

 

She is going to exert herself, she knows it, but fighting the Sand girl and seeing what her teammate could do to Lee was scary. It installed fear deep in her heart, and there are nights where she wakes up terrified and trembling from her dreams - from her _nightmares_ \- _because Lee_ **_died_ ** _to the Sand demon. And oh Sage, there was so much_ **_blood_** _, in the walls, in the sand, and Tenten could not_ **_breathe_** _, the sand was at her throat, squeezing the life out of her body, and it didn’t matter whether she was a weapon master-in-training or not, Lee was dead and she was going to die and_ **_dammit._ ** _The wind roared and trashed and scarred her body, and there was just too much for her resist-_

 

On those  nights, she doesn't sleep at all. Tenten has to be better, for herself and for her teammates, because being stagnant means _death_.

 

There are people out there already better than her, and it doesn’t hurt to keep improving herself. (She lies. It hurts.) Her heart is dancing in her chest as she listens to Sakura’s idea.  


* * *

  
All thoughts about the pink haired girl being soft are absolute lies. The younger girl’s plan involves sticking senbon on half of her body and having Tenten walk around with them on while following her everyday routine. Sticking senbon on with chakra? And what the hell has Sakura been reading to develop this madness? Downright crazy stuff that’s what. Even worse, the girl tells her that she has already tested the plan out in her own home before and then has the _audacity_ to do it once more in front of Tenten as a demonstration. (Tenten is going to do what Sakura tells her anyway. She is taking a break from kunai-shoes to give her feet a week of _much_ desired rest.)

 

Except, with every word Sakura adds, the plan is becoming more ridiculously unbelievable than Tenten previously thought, and it involves walking on trees _and_ walking on water (the water exercise is not scheduled for the first days at least). All the senbons keep falling off on the first day with the exception of the ones on her hands (there are more chakra coils in a human’s hands and feet, making it easier to keep objects such as senbons attached), which forces her to focus on keeping them there while walking on the trees.

 

For the fallen ones, she throws them at Neji (propulsed by chakra alone) when he starts talking about her having to stick to her fate. He evades them, and admittedly the throw is very off, but it has the nice effect of shutting him up (he knows Tenten never hit anything other than what she desired. It is a crafted lie of hers. It took time, hard work, and very early mornings training to just hit the center. No one needs to know though). Neji is pretty, but a bit assholish sometimes, and right now, Tenten has no patience for it.

 

She thinks that is the end of the conversation. Except a week later, her teammate is using his Byakugan and pointing where her chakra is not moving enough or moving too much. It helps immensely, and her gratitude must have been showing on her face because he looks very constipated noticing it. She shares the story with Sakura and laughs when the other girl asks if that is not the permanent look on his face. (Tenten falls laughing from the branch and dislocates her left shoulder. Some senbons enter her skin and muscles, which hurts way more than she thought. She remembers seeing Sakura’s surprised face before blacking out. Later, Tenten learns the medics healed most of her injuries, but she will retain nerve damage in those areas for the rest of her life).

 

Later, Tenten is sharing the same story with Lee, as well as the reason for her being in the hospital. He admires the dedication she has toward her goal and gives a very passionate speech. Lee starts doing strenuous exercises to prove of his dedication toward his goal, except that is not good for his body right now, and she suggests that he does it more after he is out. Maybe he could keep it to just forty push-ups instead of two hundred? Tenten is being reasonable; she knows he is going to exercise regardless of what anyone says, and at least this way, she puts a limit to it.

 

The following week, she returns the kunai-shoes to her feet. Though her teacher is a bit worried about her straining her body, Tenten has no problem with doing so. She knows her limits better now. The pain, the effort, the dedication, all of those are worth it when she walks on the grass and there are barely any holes. Sakura is observing with a pensive look, which probably means she is thinking about improving the difficulty of the exercise (Tenten is right. Sakura adds a kunai to each sandal, “for stability” the younger girl claims, and asks Tenten to run on the trees with them. Even _Gai_ is kind of flabbergasted at the suggestion.)

 

Tenten is an orphan, and everything she is successful at is because she puts effort into it. Tenten is a dreamer with a head in the stars, feet on the earth, hands occupied, and friends at her side. It is all she needs to fulfill her dreams.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't see until now some med-ninja Tenten. It kinds of baffle me, because the only reason in canon she didn't go in this path and asked to an apprenticeship to Tsunade was because she didn't have enough chackra control. But it seems like a skill which you can improve, so there is no reason for she don't improving hers???? Why this girl did not tried it? 
> 
> So, I am taking an different path both for Tenten and Sakura in this series.
> 
> Edit: Now, sake2000 beta-ed this work!


End file.
